Musicianship Workshop

Exploring best practices for an inclusive music classroom or rehearsal. Be prepared to participate, discuss and brainstorm in this interactive workshop.

Building a vocabulary and repertoire for celebrating diversity in the classroom can pose many questions."How do I best serve my students from many diverse backgrounds - cultural, socio-economic, etc?" "How do we explore cultural representation? In trying to be multi-cultural, do we actually misrepresent? Are we creating anti-bias lessons and inclusive concerts?"

This workshop reflects the teacher or director's journey towards inclusivity.

Elise Figa has taught in many types of school settings: suburban public school, Montessori school, parochial school, private school, boarding school and university. Beyond teaching, Elise has participated and facilitated professional development sessions, visited South American school music programs, and continues to engage in many conversations about race and inequity among the music education field. Elise is interested in not just bringing music education to a wider spectrum of diverse students, but also opening the conversation to examine the implicit biases of music educators in the classroom. She currently teaches at the Hewitt School in Manhattan. She conducted a summer choir tour to Europe through American Music Abroad and has performed across the United States and Europe as a soprano soloists. In July 2017, she partnered with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá to explore choral music and arrangements from Colombia. Her music training is from the Eastman School of Music and Indiana University. She loves tiramisu.